Monday, September 10

This blog might become a bit more travel oriented as we continue our discovery of mysterious and beautiful Japan. I want to bring you a bit off the tourist track, and I am sure that's what you expect me to do anyway...

The beach of Iwachi with splendid clear water and nice sand

Well, our trip to Izu peninsula this past weekend didn't disappoint. We were staying in a very small fishermen village called Iwachi, in a "Japanese style" pension called Kaikohen. The owners are a former fisherman and his wife. Their English was very limited but we managed to understand each other, they were so lovely!

We arrived on Saturday at noon and since check in wasn't before 3pm, we went to the beach first thing! The water was nice, extremely clear {bring your snorkling gear!} and without waves. It was quite like being in a pool and the kids absolutely loved it.

The kids enjoying the water on Sunday morning

The pension is located right in front of the beach and it offers dinner and breakfast {included in the price}. It's very children friendly, you sleep on futon and share toilets and bathroom {the bathroom is big, Japanese style, and includes a bathtub with hot springs which is AMAZING}. There is also an onsen {Japanese term for hot springs} build up the hill behind the house and nested in the forest with a gorgeous view on the beach.

A peak at our stay through this mosaic of pics...

Some details with regards to the photos above: dinner and breakfast are included in the price of your room. There is no menu and you must eat what is served to you... For dinner {served at 6pm} we had sashimi {no photo, sorry!} with a set including vegetable and fish tempura, a fresh shell, rice, miso soup and some more veggies. Kids had something similar, not including the shell though.

Breakfast is served at 8am and includes sausages and omelette, rice, miso soup, veggies, seaweed and fried fish: delish! You sleep on futons which are quite comfortable, however I had a hard time with the pillows {too small for me!}.

Stunning views of Mont Fuji from the eastern coast of Izu peninsula

We left Iwachi on Sunday morning at around 11am as we wanted to explore the peninsula further. We went done south and by lunch time we had reached a lovely place called Yumigahama beach {Minato city}. We set on a small restaurant opposite the beach {photo below} and it was damn good food! I had a bowl of rice with sliced seafood and some tempura and the Mr had a seafood ramen that tasted great. We also ordered some sashimi, amazing! {Budget about 5,000yen for this meal}

Recommended: a small restaurant in front of Yumigahama beach where to eat great seafood!

As we were getting slightly worried at how much traffic we would get on the way back to Tokyo, we drove back from Shimoda directly to Izu City instead of taking the road that follows the coast... And we were so right! Izu is only about 200km from Tokyo, but we weren't back home before 8pm due to traffic. Something to keep in mind for our next trip!

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed my weekend with my family. Izu would be a lovely place to travel to on a long weekend from Tokyo, and if you like diving. I have read that they have lovely diving spots down there!